Ismail Serageldin

TV Episodes

Humans have long been enthralled by the moon. … even before machine-powered flight was a reality, some were dreaming of travelling to the moon. In an amazingly short time, 66 years from the first flight of the Wright brothers in 1903, to 20th July 1969, Neil Armstrong actually walked on the moon. It was the greatest accomplishment of humanity … and this is the story of that voyage to the moon.

The Ancient Library of Alexandria was the greatest adventure of the human intellect. Part academy, part research center, part library, it welcomed the greatest thinkers of the age. The library completely disappeared over 1600 years ago but continued to inspire scientists and scholars everywhere. A few years ago it came to life again. This is the story of this great Egyptian project … the story of the rebirth of the fabled Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the New Library of Alexandria.

To the whole world the very name of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina conjures up the image of a glorious past, of a shared heritage for all of humanity. 2300 years ago, Alexander the Great, in pursuit of his dreams of culture and conquest, selected the site for a new capital, Alexandria, and his successors in Egypt, the Ptolemies, made it the intellectual capital of the world.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, while Europe was going through a scientific revolution, Egypt had sunk to backwardness and obscurantism. It was first stirred from its slumbers with the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte and his expeditionary force which included 150 scientists, printing presses and the best available science and technology. Later it was at the hands of Mohamed Ali Pasha, sent by the Ottoman Sultan as commander of an expeditionary force, as he set about modernizing the country.

The dark ages settle in Europe and the ancient world, but out of the east comes a new force … Islam explodes out of Arabia and within a few decades a vast new Muslim empire dominates world civilization. It is to write a brilliant chapter in the history of knowledge and learning, tolerance and understanding. While Europe sinks into the dark ages, from Iran and Iraq in the east to Andalusia in the west, with Egypt and the Levant at the core, the torch of art and science is held high.

This series of 25-minute episodes, each enriched with an abundance of visual material, is available in both English and Arabic. Dr. Serageldin takes us on a journey of exploration and discovery in the realm of science, from distant space to the frontiers of tomorrow.

The story of life starts with the formation of earth from the primeval dust 4.5 billion years ago … but it is not until nearly a billion years later that life begins in the warm waters of the oceans and earth evolves into the planet that we know today .. full of life and wonder.

The enormous diversity of life … a constant and endless fascination for humans from the most ancient of times. But how do we organize the enormous amount of information that we have about life on earth? With the help of the internet, in the early part of the 21st century, scientists are collectively writing a book that will include all the species known and all the literature on the biodiversity of the planet.

Darwin’s theory of evolution is the overarching theory of biology. Ever since it was formally articulated, it has brought organization to the enormous diversity of life. Thanks to Darwin, this enormous variety is explained, not only explaining why it exists, but even that it is traceable to a common ancestor. Darwin managed to assemble all the species of the world into his masterwork.

In 1953 Watson and Crick produced a scientific paper of one page which is considered one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century. It revolutionized science and opened up the way to modern biotechnology. In that paper Watson and Crick had correctly described the structure of DNA and explained the mechanism of heredity… Humans had found the building blocks of life.